Welding is an important process in the manufacture and construction of various products and structures. Applications for welding are widespread and used throughout the world including, for example, the construction and repair of ships, buildings, bridges, vehicles, and pipe lines, to name a few. Welding is performed in a variety of locations, such as in a factory with a fixed welding operation or on site with a portable welder.
In automated or mechanized welding a user/operator (i.e. welder) programs or instructs welding equipment to make a weld. For example, in Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) a consumable solid or tubular (flux cored) electrode may be continuously fed into a molten weld or arc zone that is protected from atmospheric contamination by being “submerged” under flux such as a blanket of granular fusible material consisting of lime, silica, manganese oxide, calcium fluoride, or other suitable compounds. Generally, when molten, the flux becomes conductive, and provides a current path between the electrode and the work. A thick layer of flux completely covering the molten metal may thus prevent spatter and sparks as well as suppress the intense ultraviolet radiation and fumes that may be a part of the arc welding process. In such a process, currents ranging from 300 to 2000 A may be utilized. Additionally, currents of up to 5000 A may be used with multiple arcs. Single or multiple electrode wire variations of the process exist. Also, DC or AC power can be used, and/or combinations of DC and AC in multiple electrode systems. Generally, constant voltage welding power supplies are most commonly used; however, constant current systems in combination with a voltage sensing wire-feeder are also available.
In manual or semi-automated welding a user/operator (i.e. welder) directs welding equipment to make a weld. For example, in electric arc welding the welder may manually position a welding rod or welding wire and produce a heat generating arc at a weld location. In this type of welding, the spacing of the electrode from the weld location is related to the arc produced and to the achievement of optimum melting/fusing of the base and welding rod or wire metals. The quality of such a weld is often directly dependant upon the skill of the welder.
Submerged Arc Welding and Electric Arc Welding, among other types of welding, may occur in a variety of environments. As such, it is generally desirable to protect the components of welding systems for use in a variety of conditions.
In the past, various methods and devices have been used to protect the components of welding systems. For example, there has been a desire to encapsulate the circuit boards of welding components to protect them from their environment, for example with a dip-and-cure epoxy coat. However, encapsulation of these boards for environmental protection is difficult due to the need of capacitors to be mounted directly to the board. Any area for mounting of a capacitor requires damming prior to encapsulation in order to prevent encapsulation of these areas.
Additionally, connections of capacitors to circuit boards are typically high temperature connections due to the nature of the materials of capacitors. This heat is typically displaced into the circuit board and thus raises the temperature of the board and other components mounted to the board. It is desired to minimize this heat transfer from the capacitor connections to the board.